Cooking from Scratch
The yum category. Check it out!
We were going to make loaves of Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake for the church coffee hour and slice them for serving. It would be a bit easier in preparation, but those savings would just transfer to more difficultly later. Instead, we decided to make what we’re calling pound cake bites, basically mini cakes made in mini-muffin tins. If you want to make this pound cake as loaves, it’s pretty easy.
Continue reading “Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake Bites”
As soon as we saw this tart, we knew we’d make it one day. It took us a couple of years to work up to it, but we finally did it, making nearly everything from scratch. So, now you know why we had posts for feuilletine and almond-hazelnut praline paste; it was all in preparation for this one dessert. It also turns out that this is our 1000th recipe posted (well, really the fueilletine is number 1000, and the almond-hazelnut praline paste 1001, but both are specific for this recipe, so we’ll consider it number 1000).
Continue reading “Chocolate, Praline, and Cocoa Nib Tart”
Well, these probably aren’t really Irish; we tend to think that they’re more French, but we’ll call them Irish, anyway. We think that most people from Ireland might have at least a wee taste.
We came up with the idea for these as a possible dessert for the upcoming holidays, and, naturally, we had to try them first. We’d surely hate to make them for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and have a dessert we don’t like.
Continue reading “Irish Cups o’ Cream”
As regular readers know, we make small treats to bring down to our Monday evening walk on the nights we volunteer. It gives us the chance to try new recipes and see how the other volunteers like them. But, we often feel badly because there are a few people who don’t eat anything with gluten, and almost everything we make involves flour. Now, we could get gluten-free all-purpose flour, but we prefer finding recipes that are naturally gluten-free, at least when we can. So, when we saw this recipe in Ciao Biscotti, by Domenica Marchetti, we figured we’d give it a whirl.
Continue reading “Pistachio Ameretti”
When we saw this recipe in My Kitchen Year, by Ruth Reichl, we were intrigued. First, because it was an old recipe, coming from Mary J. Lincoln via the Boston Cooking School magazine. We like old recipes; there’s just something fun about making a cake that your great-grandparents might have had for a celebration. It gives you a tangible connection with the past. The second reason we liked this recipe was its simplicity — only four ingredients. How can you make a cake with just four ingredients? Read on, fellow scratcher.
Continue reading “Sponge Cake”
Why let all those people with the ice cream machines have all the fun? Full disclosure: we have one and use it quite often. But, it’s entirely possible to make a great ice cream-like treat without an ice cream churn. Simply make semifreddo. In some respects, it might even be better than ice cream, as it’s lighter and more like frozen mousse. Sound good? Let’s scratch out a batch together!
Continue reading “Meyer Lemon Semifreddo”
We owe Dorie Greenspan a round of thanks. Not necessarily because she writes great cookbooks with fun and interesting recipes, but, because her Around My French Table was one of the first cookbooks we looked at when trying to find a recipe for cassoulet. Now, we’re not sure if there is a recipe for cassoulet in there, but there were definitely other recipes that we wanted to try. That’s what got us hooked, and made us want to start this blog. So, thanks, Dorie!